


Proclaiming My Love For You In Any Way I Can

by StarEyedPrince



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Hope's Peak Academy (Dangan Ronpa), Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), F/M, I'm so glad kaito is multilingual in languages I speak bc now i get to flex my russian skills, Multilingual, Mutual Pining, Study Date
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-11
Updated: 2018-07-11
Packaged: 2019-06-08 17:28:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15248268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarEyedPrince/pseuds/StarEyedPrince
Summary: Momota and Harukawa have a multilingual study date.





	Proclaiming My Love For You In Any Way I Can

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this whole thing on my phone while I was stuck on a day long road trip to Canada, so if there's anything weird about formatting and such its probably because of that haha
> 
> There will be some words in russian but there's a translation next to most of them. I'm a bit rusty w my russian tho so if anyone spots any mistakes hmu and i'll fix it!

If you go left nearby the train station, a few blocks from the Hope’s Peak campus, there’s a small cafe that’s quite popular with students. Despite its quaint size it’s always bustling with people talking, laughing and gossiping while sipping on lattes.  
  
But today, on a rather rainy sunday afternoon, is an exception.   
  
For many high school students in Japan, midterm exams are right around the corner. It's a frustrating and exhaustive time where students hole up in any quiet place they can find, be it a library or a dorm room, and try their best to memorize every math problem and grammar lesson they were supposed to learn in class and pray they remembered hard enough to keep their scores up for the rest of the term.   
  
This was true even for Ultimate students in Hope's Peak Academy. Even with it's unusually lax curriculum, exams are unavoidable.   
  
That is why this usually busy cafe is quieter than usual, and why Momota Kaito thought it was the perfect study session spot.   
  
Despite his strange hair and way of dressing, Momota Kaito is a surprisingly diligent student. Always at the top of his class (only below the likes of Tojo, Shinguuji and at times Ouma) he startles even the teachers with his high marks. But this really shouldn't be that surprising. To pass astronaut training one must learn complex engineering and mathematics, be physically fit and learn different languages along with their respective cultures. It's an obvious truth, yet it's often forgotten due to being overshadowed by Momota's rather loud, brazen personality.   
  
Nevertheless, Momota is quite the diligent student. Studying for exams is like breathing air to him, even though he doesn't look like it.   
  
The same can't be said for Harukawa Maki.   
  
It's not like she's utterly failing her classes, but she's not exactly getting high marks either. No, her grades are quite average. Above average grades in math, average grades in classes such as Japanese and world history, and exceptionally high grades in physical education. She has a weak spot in English, but that's fine.   
  
It's normal for a self proclaimed child caregiver to have average grades, right?   
  
Well, Hope's Peak Academy agrees with that statement, but not Momota. To him, if you have the chance to improve yourself in any field, you seize that chance immediately.   
  
And that's what Momota did; after he buzzed Harukawa's intercom multiple times, barged into her room after she begrudgingly opened the door, grabbed her English textbook, worksheets and pencil case, stuffed everything into his schoolbag and then grabbed her wrist and dragged her with him to the usually busy but now quiet cafe nearby the train station.   
  
Harukawa pouted the entire time, but wasn't vehemently against being dragged along either.   
  
They settle down within the cafe, light rain tapping against the windows and small chatter from the other patrons that still came by today fill up the cafe. Their table was a complete mess. Composition notebooks, worksheets, textbooks, pencils, pens, erasers and the tiny eraser shavings were littered across without care. Coffee cups scatter their workspace, with each respective person having a different order.   
  
Taking a huge swig, Momota slams his half drunk cup of black coffee next to Harukawa's already finished caramel frappuccino with extra whipped cream and sugar. He looks towards Harukawa with a grin and slams his fists together.   
  
"Alright Harumaki, let’s take it from the top!"   
  
With a clear and fluent voice he guides Harukawa's shaky English with the usual exercise.   
  
_"Hello, do you know where the subway is?"_ He begins the usual oral exercise with perfect English.   
  
_"Y...Yes, it is next to... the... bus... station?"_ Harukawa unsuredly responds.   
  
"Great!" He punctuates her correct answer with affirmation in Japanese before continuing.

_"When will the bus be here?"_ _  
_

_" The bus... will be here in...5 minutes."_   
  
_"Ok! The weather is nice today."_   
  
_"Yes. It is much cold."_   
  
"Ah," Momota interrupts. "You made a mistake there. It's _'very cold'_ , not _'much cold'_."   
  
"Ughhh..."   
  
For the third or fourth time today, Harukawa's head impacts her English textbook with a soft thud.   
  
For the third or fourth time today, Momota chuckles a bit as he ruffles her bangs.   
  
"Oi Oi, don't beat yourself up! Lots of people make that mix up. Besides, you've still made good progress! That's nothing to scoff at."   
  
Harukawa puffs out her cheeks in retaliation to her hair being ruffled. But it's a nice sensation, having a warm, large hand play with her dark brown hair. She'll never admit this, of course. But it doesn't stop the blush that's starting to creep across her cheeks.   
  
"I'm not beating myself up," She swats his hand away. "This is just stupid. Why do I need to study English?"

“Why shouldn't you learn it? English is a pretty useful language to know!”

“How so?”

“How? Well…” Momota strokes his beard for a moment. “You could go to a different country! It's a widely spoken language in many parts of the world.”

“I'm not leaving this country anytime soon.”

“Really? Not even for a vacation?”

“Nope.”

“Ookayyy… what about meeting new people? You can make even more friends if you can speak in a different language!”

“I don't want to meet new people.”

“Now you're just being antisocial.”

“I've always been antisocial. What's your point?”

"My point is!!! Learning a new language is an important way to expand your horizons!! Communication is vital, and English is still widely spoken across the world, with that you can unlock way more possibilities in the future than you could if you only knew Japanese."   
  
Momota finishes his mini speech by flashing a thumbs up. Harukawa responds by rolling her eyes.   
  
_Typical Momota, always going on about expanding horizons this and breaking limits that like an idiot_ , Harukawa snarks in her mind.   
  
"Well, I still don't see the point." She voices her complaints. "Even if it can 'expand my horizons' it won't give me any new opportunities. I... don't have a future, remember?"   
  
Her voice dips down when she finishes that sentence, crimson eyes also lowering as she picks on the eraser shavings.   
  
But she's not wrong in her eyes.   
  
To her, the moment she agreed to come with those nice misters, the moment she was thrown into that training facility, tortured and beaten beyond the point what a little girl can endure - let alone should, the moment her shaking hands first drove her knife deeply into her targets jugular and vomited after seeing the life from her victims eyes leave their body, that was the moment her forfeited her future.   
  
A cold blooded killer like her doesn't deserve one.   
  
"..."   
  
Momota, uncharacteristically, says nothing for a moment. He lets the silence permeate around them only for a moment. Only the sound of rain and quiet chatter of the other patrons fill the void.   
  
And then, he pats the back of her shoulder.   
  
"Harumaki, you're letting your enemy get to you again."   
  
Dumbfounded, and a bit flustered, she jerks back in reaction.   
  
"W-What are you-"   
  
"Look, the only person who decides whether or not you have a future is you. If you give up now, of course it'll be impossible. But if you keep fighting, even just a little, you'll never run out of possibilities!"   
  
Once again Momota wraps up another motivational speech, a large smile dominating his face and waits to see how Harukawa will react.   
  
But she stands still.

In her mind, she knows it's just canned bullshit he spouts to make him look heroic or whatever. Just change a few words and that speech is almost the same as the last one he gave, but...she can't dismiss it so easily. Even if the words are recycled, probably lifted from one of those super corny shounen manga he always reads, she can't dismiss his words.   
  
She can't deny his sincerity.   
  
"You're... just saying nonsense again." She finally settles on her words.   
  
He snorts in response. "Heh, you might think it's bullshit now, but one day you'll realize. And I'll be there right with you."   
  
Harukawa's heart jumped into her throat from hearing that last statement.   
  
"Right... with me?" She parrots.   
  
In the smallest of moments, so quick Harukawa doesn't notice, Momota stammers on his words. If you look at him from a certain angle, you might see a slight blush on his tanned skin.   
  
"O-Of course! You're my sidekick after all!! A hero can't leave his sidekick alone in trouble, can he?"   
  
Ah.   
  
That shtick again.   
  
Disappointed but not surprised, Harukawa's heart dropped out of her throat and back to its rightful spot.   
  
She cracks open her English textbook again. They wasted too much time talking about this nonsense. How idiotic.   
  
"Whatever, that still didn't convince me that learning English will be useful." She huffs.   
  
"Sure," he chuckles again. "Whatever you say, Harumaki."

Momota clears his throat and pumps his fists once more.

"Alright, let's start over again! From the top!"

* * *

Another round of English practice, followed by another exasperated groan, followed by another round of English practice, their routine repeated as the day passes by, only interrupted by the occasional bathroom break. Sooner or later, when they stopped their oral practice and focused on the review worksheets, Harukawa notices Momota pull something out from his school bag from the corner of her eye.

A thick book with some words written on the cover - looks like Russian, maybe? - and his reading glasses case.  
  
Harukawa has seen Momota with his glasses a few times. It's not like his eyesight is poor; 20/20 vision is one of the many requirements astronauts need to meet. He muttered an explanation once, something about "Cyrillic being a bitch to read," and such.   
  
Momota wordlessly slides his glasses on and opens up the book.

Upon closer inspection the book he's holding is quite worn. The spine has plenty of creases, dog eared pages everywhere, colorful post it notes scattered within the pages, and countless words and phrases highlighted in marker with the color bleeding on the other side of the page.

Ah, which reminds Momota to take out his pencil case and rummage around for the highlighter. Once he finds it, he takes off the cap with a pop and starts to circle even more text in the book.

Harukawa hides her face deep within her English textbook, only her eyes peeking out to look.

How frustrating.

Like it's some transformation, there's something about Momota that changes whenever studies. His bright eyes seem more focused behind the glasses frame, his brow becomes furrowed deep in thought. Even his goatee, which more than one classmate has said out loud tp him that it looks weird or creepy, looks more sophisticated as he strokes it after he flips another page.

That's why it's so frustrating! How does that even work?!

It's probably the glasses. Maybe Shirogane was onto something.

Yeah, that's it.

That's probably why Harukawa becomes flustered again when he suddenly looks up from his book and stares right into her eyes.

“Something up?” He asks with a smile.

Harukawa's heart does another jump. Why is his smile always so dazzling?! Even if it's just a small smile it contains the energy of 10,000 suns!

_That's stupid_ , Harukawa mentally chastises herself.

Stupid glasses wearing suddenly cool looking Momota.

“Need some help with your textbook stuff again?” He asks once more.

“Uh,” Harukawa tries to find a good response in her mind, some excuse that makes it sound like she wasn't staring at his face for a good portion of their study session. “No, it's nothing like that. I just thought.... that book you're reading must be interesting. You've been scribbling all over it this whole time.”

Momota's face brightens more than usual. He's really happy whenever Harukawa takes an interest in whatever he's doing.

“Oh, this?” He closes up the book and holds the cover up.

“I'm just doing some culture reading. Russians are super into their literature, y’know? Donovetsky, Tolstoy, Pushkin, Chekhov, they always brag about all these different authors and shit."

Harukawa nods slightly, pretending she fully understands who exactly are these people he's talking about.

“They're good reads, but kinda dry. Tolstoy especially loves to go on and on and doesn't know when to fucking stop.”

“Uh huh,” Harukawa hums. She's kind of tuning him out at this point, not exactly caring about some foreign authors she never really heard about, but she can't deny it's almost refreshing hearing him talk about these subjects.

“...You know, you may not look like it at all, but you're actually pretty serious when it comes to studies. It's weird.”

“Weird? Why is it weird- wait, what do you mean ‘I don't look like it at all’?!” Momota yells, offended by her remark.

“I don't know, it's weird. You always put in extra effort into everything you do, even if you half-ass it at the end. Isn't that kinda wasteful?” She says, nonchalantly ignoring his offended feelings.

Geez, how cold can she get?

Still, Momota pushes up his glasses and grins.

“Heh, that's simple: there's no such thing as wasted effort! So long as you go out and try something, even if it didn't work out, it's still an accomplishment. If you look at life that way, then you'll never waste anything!”

Once again his response is a canned motivational speech, but this time Momota has a small trick up his sleeve.

He pushes up his glasses. A new idea pops into his head.

“In fact, I'll show you.”

“Show me?”

“Yeah! Just to show you, I'll teach you some Russian right now.”

“What? Why?”

Momota keeps finding ways to surprise Harukawa. He kinda has a knack for it.

“I told you already, learning new languages is a good way to broaden your possibilities! It's good to learn new things. Plus, when I take you and Shuichi up to the space station, you'll be able to communicate with the Russian cosmonauts more easily! It's a win/win.”

“You're still going on about that?” Harukawa says.

“But of course.” He answers.

Once in a while, Momota brings up his big dream of bringing her and Saihara up to the international space station with him. Grandiose and vague, like all of Momota's dreams, he goes and on about how he's gonna bring them up there for sure one day. Of course, he completely ignores how difficult and expensive space tourism is, let alone go to the space station itself! But Momota's so sure of himself it becomes difficult to say it's an impossibility to the point where Saihara and Harukawa are quietly looking forward to it.

But even with Momota's boundless energy and confidence, it's still a pipe dream the moment.

“Alright, let's start with some basic phrases.”

“Hang on, I didn't agree to anything yet.” Harukawa objected.

“Ehhh, don't worry about it. It's just basic shit, nothing too difficult!” He goes on.

“It has nothing to do with difficulty, I didn't agree to learn Russian.”

“Now, greetings are super important. Let's with start with a simple ‘Hello, how are you?’ That's always a good icebreaker.” Momota completely steamrolls her objection.

Sighing, Harukawa resigns to the impromptu lesson. And right off the heels of her English lesson, too!

“Ok, just repeat after me: _Привет, как ваши дела?_ ”

As expected of an Ultimate Astronaut his pronunciation is flawless, fluent even. It was quite impressive, more so than his English.

Understandably, Harukawa is quite nervous. English is something she’s already shaky with, jumping into a new language is nerve wracking.

Still, she'll never show that. With a deep breath she repeats his greeting.

_“п… привет. Как ваши дела?”_

“ _отлично!_ Excellent!” Momota beams. “You pronounced it perfectly, no accent either! Just gotta be more confident!”

He ruffled her hair some more.

Harukawa puffs out her cheeks. Her hair is gonna get so messed up at the rate he's going.

“Don't patronize me. I only repeated what you said.”

“I’m not patronizing you! Pronunciation is vital. Let's continue. How about ‘Can you please talk more slowly?’ That's a pretty good phrase to know.”

“But I wouldn't know what they were gonna say in the first place.”

“Just humor me!”

“Fine,” Harukawa sighs. “what's the phrase anyways?”

“Oh, right! Repeat after me: _Говорите, пожалуйста, медленнее_.”

“O-Ok,” Harukawa steels herself. This is already trickier than the last phrase, but she's not going to give up now. She's already going through this dumb exercise, might as well go all the way.

_“Говори...те, по….пожалуйста, медленнее?”_

“ _прекрасно!!_ You did amazing! But again, no need to be so hesitant, Ok? Believe in yourself, Harumaki!!”

“Fine, fine. What's next?”

“Well, I got one more but… are you up for it?”

Leaning forward, the lightness in his tone disappears, and becomes much more serious.

“Now, I'm gonna teach you a very important phrase here. It's a bit advanced, but its as important as ‘where's the bathroom?’ or ‘What time is it?’. Think you can do it?”

Harukawa is silent for a moment.

This is… a little overdramatic.

It's especially odd coming from Momota. But maybe because it's coming from him of all people, she understands the importance of the phrase she's about to learn.

She nods, ready for the next lesson.

“Now listen closely, I'm only gonna say this once…. _Каков ваш любимый космический корабль?_ ”

A deep breath, and with confidence she repeats the phrase with ease.

_“Каков ваш любимый космический корабль?”_

Momota's grin widens even more as he pats her back.

“Spoken like a natural! Well done, Harumaki!!”

“Hmph, I told you, I'm just repeating what you just said. It's nothing special.” She begins to tug at one of her ponytails, face reddening from the bombardment of compliments. “So… what does that phrase mean anyway?”

“‘What's your favorite spaceship?’”

Harukawa throws her eraser with such force that it makes an audible smack when it hit Momota square on the forehead. He reels back from the impact.

“O-Ow, what was that for?!”

“Don't just feed me stupid lines to parrot back, you idiot! Do you wanna die?”

“Its not stupid! How else are you gonna ask the other cosmonauts such an important question when we go up to space?!”

“Are you seriously still going on about that?!”

In a huff, she burrows her nose back into her textbook. How embarrassing! How dare he make her say such stupid things out loud in a public place?! He's lucky no one around is fluent enough so they wouldn't know just how foolish she looked.

… Probably.

…… Hopefully.

......... There aren't any foreign tourists in this cafe, are there?

Not wanting to think too deeply about that probability, she digs even deeper into her textbook.

Momota is still rubbing his forehead from the fatal blow. He's lucky he got off that easily. Even an eraser can turn into a deadly weapon in the hands of the Ultimate Assassin.

He pushed his luck a little too far this time, didn't he?

“...Sorry, Harumaki.” he finally mumbles.

Harukawa says nothing in response. Her eyes still focus on the textbook.

Momota accepts her silence. He probably deserves it.

He also props up his Russian book, and tries to find the page he left off on, but gets distracted by something.

Harukawa's nimble fingers were playing with one of her ponytails again.

It's something he sees her do a lot whenever she's around. A nervous habit maybe?

Regardless, he slowly becomes entranced by it.

Momota always wonders how on earth Harukawa manages to have such long hair all the time. Doesn't it get heavy? One time, she knocked Saihara off his chair after moving her head too fast in class. Or tiresome? Her neck muscles have to be pretty strong for her to constantly move around all day with such a head of hair.

It's quite the feat, he muses to himself.

Her hair is always so soft whenever he ruffles her bangs.

Her twintails always look so pristine, sleek and beautiful despite their long length. It's obvious she takes good care of it. His hands always wanted to comb through it, play with her locks.

Without thinking, Momota utters a phrase he kept only to his mind.

_“... у тебя очень красивые волосы.”_

You have very beautiful hair.

Unfortunately, Harukawa is still within earshot.

“What did you say?”

“ _что_?....... Wait, FUCK-”

Harukawa finally turns away from her textbook, startled a bit from his shout.

Now here's a sight Harukawa rarely sees; Momota, sweating more than usual, and an intense blush across his entire face. Did something happen to him? It's not like Momota to be this flustered.

She's so taken aback by this that she almost forgets her question.

“Did you… say something just now?”

“W-Wha?! N-Nah, I didn't say nothing!!” He squawks.

Harukawa's eyes narrow down even further.

Momota’s pulse quickens, the time to make a good excuse is running out quickly. A last ditch attempt to cover his tracks, he clears his throat loudly until he reaches his usual pitch.

“I uh, I was just practicing some Russian from this book! Just trying out some new phrases.”

Harukawa arches her brow, but pays no mind. She’s already starting to settle down on thinking he's probably just being stupid as usual.

“What kind of phrases?” She asks nonchalantly.

“What kind of phrases?!”

“Is it more stuff about spaceships?”

Momota opens his mouth, leaves it open for a moment, and then closes it in quick succession.

Well, that's one way to conveniently escape this conversation.

“.... Sort of, but not really?”

After a few seconds of silently staring at his face, Harukawa goes back to her textbook.

That was close.

Way too close for Momota's comfort.

All the tension in his muscles melts away, and breathes a sigh of relief. For once in his life Momota is glad he's being dismissed as just being an idiot.

...But, a pit starts to grow in his stomach.

On one hand, he's glad she didn't understand what he said. Harukawa is an important person to him. He doesn't want to do anything to make their relationship awkward. He doesn't want to ruin their hero and sidekick dynamic by mixing in his own person feelings in.

But at the same time, he wants more.

Like a waterfall, all of his thoughts that were trapped only to himself begin to cascade from his mouth.

_“тебя очень красивая улыбка.”_ You have a pretty smile.

_“У тебя такие прекрасные красный глаза.”_ You have such beautiful crimson eyes.

_“Ты такой тёплый девушки.”_ You're a kind hearted girl.

“Ты всегда в моих мыслях.” You're always on my mind.

_“Я не могу жить без тебя.”_

I can't live without you.

_**“Я люблю тебя.”** _

**I love you.**

Harukawa pauses for a moment, glances back at him in curiosity, and goes back to her studies.

She doesn't even make a single comment.

A small sigh, Momota focuses back on his book.

She may never know what those words he said mean, or even care, but that's ok. He's fine with that.

One day he'll tell her these words again. In a language she can understand and comprehend them in. But for now, just saying those thoughts he bottled up out loud is more than enough.

They continue their studies in peace, the rain in the background still tapping against the windows of the unusually quiet cafe.

**Author's Note:**

> it's been a while since I last written something!! The rust is obvious, but it was fun to write again.
> 
> Fun Fact: One reason kaito is one of my favorite characters is that we speak the same languages!! I can speak English, Russian and i'm learning Japanese! He knows all these languages but the dumbass can't even compliment harumaki in his own smh
> 
> Please leave a comment if you can!! It's been a while, so any comment is fine!!


End file.
